The Gang Goes On Vacation
by shippingsomething
Summary: Sweet Dee Reynolds has never been lucky in love, but things may be about to change. When Dee realizes she likes both Mac and Charlie, her world is turned upside down. A surprise vacation from her new boyfriend leads to the Gang heading to the Bahamas. A hard decision lies ahead of her. Will Dee find love with one of her best friends? Or will she fine herself even more alone?


(Quick Author's note here, this fic has come from me binging the whole show over five days and I don't know what to do with my emotions so here is my attempt at something. Please review to let me know what you think and if you think I should continue because I know that It's Always Sunny fics are very rare and I don't know if I should continue or not. Anyway, I hope you enjoy.)

Chapter 1- Dee Passes Out

10:36 pm

On a Thursday,

Philadelphia, PA

Every time she felt the now familiar lust, Sweet Dee would take another drink. Sometimes it was the cool, foamy froth of a beer that took her mind off of her feelings of desire, other times it was a hard slap from dark whiskey.

She had resorted to resting her forehead on the counter of the bar and was clearly not being the very charming and funny barmaid that she always was and that the customers had come to expect.

'Well...' She thought to herself, 'I don't give a damn.' She popped her head up for a moment to look around Paddy's, finding it completely empty apart from one old man sitting at a booth and...

She gagged a little, the way she always did back in high school when she was near her crush, and quickly gulped her eighth drink from her fourth beer that hour and then promptly returned to hiding her face on the not so clean bar top, swallowing down the bubbly liquid before it had a chance to resurface.

'Here is safe' Her drunk thoughts assured her, 'here you can't see him and he can't see you and-'

Her mind however was quickly interupted by a banging on the bar.

"Dee! Hey Dee!" He shouted, banging the bar over and over, "For God's sake Dee, get up!"

Dee didn't want to lift her weary head, she didn't want to have to hide that gag that would most likely happen if she looked up, but she had no choice. It was only she and him working until close, and she did still have another hour left of her shift.

Sighing, Dee pulled her head up, squinting at the very dim lights of the Irish Pub and stared right at the man who was causing her problems.

"Jesus Christ, Dee," Mac remarked, his slit eyes widening and pointing brows furrowing at the sight of the blonde, "What the Hell happened to you?"

Dee tried to think of a clever come back, like one of the insults that the Gang would throw at her daily, but she came up with nothing and stumbled clumsily to her right.

Dee held up a pointed finger, "I..." She slurred, trying desperately to come up with something while Mac waited for her answer, clearly irritated. He was wearing one of his signature sleeveless tank tops, with some clever slogan on it, not that Dee could make out what it said. While trying to find the words to say, Sweet Dee found herself watching Mac's arms, fascinated by her desire to be in them.

Mac noticed this, and looked down at his arms suddenly self conscious. What was she looking at? He jumped back from the bar and patted his arms furiously. "What is it?!" He demanded, "Is there something on me?!" He asked as he began to flick off imaginary spiders.

"Pfft" Dee managed to say, "Yeah, I seen...a...a fly! A big fly! Huge!" She slurred, swaying from side to side.

"Well is it gone now?!" Mac almost shrieked.

"So much for head of security" Dee tutted, taking another swig of her drink because the whole arm had made her cheeks red hot.

Mac quickly regained himself, and marched over to Dee, snatching the bottle from her hand. "That's it, I'm cutting you off."

"Whaaaaat?" Dee laughed, "You can't cut me off, we're in a bar!" She gestured around herself sloppily, "I'll just get myself another drink." She said confidently.

"God Dee, your breath is terrible. How much have you had?" Mac asked, seeming concerned but Dee shrugged it off. It wasn't like the rest of the gang were actually ever concerned about her. Even when she was pregnant, they weren't interested in who the father was or how it had happened because it wasn't any of them who had impregnated her.

Mac was actually concerned, Dee had always been an alcoholic mess, but he hadn't seen her this low, not even when she and Dennis were addicted to Crack. This was different, he could sense a huge amount of vulnerability in her. He feared that she had actually given up, and that soon enough she might just go find some guy, get married and then never associate with him again. Although he did hate Dee most of the time for the way she acted in certain situations, he still loved her just as much as he loved Dennis and Charlie. Not Frank though, Mac hadn't clicked with Frank as much as Charlie had, and probably never would.

"I'll tell you how much I've had, Mac..." She looked up at the ceiling, trying to count, "Not enough is how much I've had Mac, so there."

"How the Hell am I stuck with you again?" Mac rolled his eyes.

Dee tried to defend herself, but all she found herself doing was falling forward, her legs suddenly rebelling against her.

Mac flinched at the feel of her against him. Him and Dee had really never been the touchy-feely type with one another, and this was as close to a hug that they'd ever had. Internally, Mac had been fighting with himself about his sexuality, and although he would never say it aloud, he was pretty certain that he was into men as well as women. But he wasn't going to admit that out loud, because then God would have a good reason to smite him. But even with his new found attraction, he found himself more and more attracted to the woman awkwardly leaning drunkenly against his chest than any man. This was the first time in so long that he had felt a woman on him, and as much as he hated to admit it, he enjoyed this embrace, even if the woman was Dee.

"I could get in on that" A gruff voice said from behind them, making Mac spin around, leaving Dee to fall to the ground. The old man who had been sitting in the booth stood there with his wrinkly skin and toothless mouth, grinning as he moved his eyes from the embarrassed Mac down to the passed out Dee. "How much?" The creep asked, his eyes still on the sleeping Sweet Dee.

"Get out of here" Mac snapped, feeling his anger spread up through his body. It took everything in him to not punch this asshole right in the face. The old man grunted but scurried out of the bar, leaving it now fully empty.

Mac looked down at Dee passed out on the floor, and shook his head. He could leave her there all night, and she would wake up to a horrible hangover on a cold floor, like she had done so many times before. But he just couldn't leave her like that. Not tonight, since she seemed to be going through a lot.

He tried kicking her with his foot, "Dee, Dee, Dee!" Mac shouted but the girl didn't even flinch. Good thing he had his super strong arms and all that 'mass' so he would have no problem carrying her to his car and then up to her apartment.

Sighing, Mac picked Dee up awkwardly, slinging her over his shoulder and walked out of the bar and to his car.

(Scene Break)

'I didn't anticipate her to be this heavy' Mac scoffed to himself as he finally made it up the stairs and to Dee's apartment. He heard soft noises as Dee came to. 'Perfect, just after I carry her fat ass up like a million stairs.'

Dee was slowing coming to, but she was finding it hard to stand up straight, and Mac had to lean her against the wall. "Where are your keys?" Mac asked, waving his hand in front of Dee's face, "Dee, I need your keys so you can get into the apartment." She didn't seem to understand and Mac inhaled deeply as he realised he had to go fishing in her pockets since she hadn't brought a handbag with her to work. Of course she hadn't, because she was Dee. As delicately as he could, Mac slid his hand into her jean pocket and was grateful that they were the first thing he had found, and he pulled his hand out as quickly as he could with the keys in hand.

Shit, she had like twenty keys. How many keys did she need? She didn't even have a car anymore since he and Charlie had unfortunately traded it for their lives recently.

Mac dangled the keys in front of he slowly waking eyes, "Dee! What key is it?" As he dangled the keys his elbow pulled down on the scarf that she was wearing, revealing a hidden, but very real bruise on the left side of her neck.

Mac felt that anger surge inside of him once again, but pushed it down. That bruise could have come from anything, it was Dee and she did get into a lot of shit. But the bruise did kind of look like hand marks and... He couldn't help himself from peeking at the other side of her neck. Just as he had dreaded there was another bruise, indentical to the one on the opposite side of her neck.

He jumped back when the door to Dee's apartment opened from the inside. Mac would've went straight into fighting stance if he had been more alert, but instead he had been too preoccupied with the marks on Dee's skin. He was going to fight the dick that had done this, the guy who was in her apartment, but he let his mouth fall open a little when he seen his friend looking suspiciously from Mac to Dee.

"I know Dennis does that kind of thing, but I didn't think you were the type" Charlie stated.

"What?" Mac asked completely befuddled, "Oh wait, you think that I was...? With Dee...? Pfft no way Dude."

"Hey, whatever man, you do your thing, I do mine-" Charlie put his hands up defensively.

"Ew, gross. No. That's Dee. Ew." Mac restated, he might have meant those words a year ago, but now things were different. Wait, why was Charlie in Dee's apartment? "Hey, uh, what are you doing in Dee's apartment?"

Charlie paused for a second, like he had to search his almost empty brain for his answer, "Oh yeah, me and Frank are sorta' going through a thing right now and I thought it'd be best if we had some space apart."

"So you came to Dee over me and Dennis?" Mac asked, hurt.

"Well yeah, becuase Dee kinda lets me do my own thing and you and Dennis are a little more 'don't eat cat food Charlie!' or, uh, 'don't ask me to play night crawlers' you know that sort of thing." Charlie said casually, "Uh, should we get Dee inside because she looks like shit?"

Mac remembered his drunk friend, "Yeah, you want to help me though, she's actaully really heavy." He pulled one of her arms over his shoulder whilst Charlie got the other.

"That's weird because she's been on this crazy diet for her new boyfriend or whatever, I actually don't think it's working but-" Charlie started but was cut off by Dee gagging.

"Shit she's going to puke" Mac said worriedly as the two men dragged Dee to her bathroom and dumped her on the bathroom floor.

The two men panted like they had run a marathon.

"You think she's going to be okay in here?" Mac asked, still really pissed about the whole boyfriend thing.

"I've got this man. You go home. Thanks for taking care of her though, I know if it were Dennis or Frank she'd be lying in Paddy's all night."

"Yeah, oh... uh one more thing, who is this new boyfriend anyway?" Mac whispered as he tried his luck.

"I have no idea dude, but apparently he's rich." Charlie said as Dee startled hurling loudly, making Mac gag. "I think you should go, I got it from here." Charlie said in his sweet, boy-like manner.

"Okay," Mac nodded, "I'll see you tomorrow" Mac took one last look at the hurling mess beside the toilet bowl and punched himself internally. Why the hell did he have these sorts of feelings for Dee? He almost hated himself for the way he felt, and as he walked out of her apartment all he could think about was tracking down the low life who had put his hands on her and making him regret it.

(Scene Break)

"Thanks Charlie" Dee said taking the glass of water that Charlie handed to her. He sat himself on the edge of the tub while Dee still sat on the floor. She was sobering up, but felt terrible. All she wanted to do was sleep but Charlie wouldn't let her until she swore she had no more sick left to come up.

"You doing any better?" Charlie asked, trying to keep the girl's spirits up by not looking at her matted hair or sweaty forehead and instead kept his eyes on hers. This made Dee feel slightly uncomfortable because Charlie's eyes were so soft and warm that she could almost feel herself being drawn closer to him just with a stare. Sure the two had become closer recently, especially after their one night stand, but everything had been completely friendly. Now, however, she found herself wanting more than friendship.

What was going on with her? One minute she wants Mac and the next she wants Charlie? This was wrong, so wrong.

"Honestly Charlie I don't know what 'better' is anymore. I'm an alcoholic, unsuccessful actress who works in a bar and whose only friends are her brother's friends and who is currently sitting on her bathroom floor of her one bedroom apartment with no husband at 1am on a Thursday puking into my toilet becuase I drank too much and passed out once again. So no, Charlie, I'm not doing any better." Dee said, wiping her mouth.

Charlie took a moment to let her calm down. He hated seeing her like this. If the rest of the gang were here, he'd most likely be throwing insults about how pathetic she is and how she is always going to be alone. But the gang wasn't there, and he didn't feel the pressure. He had actually been connecting with Dee recently on a more human level. Sure, she wasn't exactly The Waitress, but he did find himself actually caring for Dee, he had even started sneaking food supplements into her food so that she would stay healthy, just like he did with The Waitress.

"I think I'm done." Dee said, standing up, swaying as she done so and flushing the toilet.

"Whoah, hey," Charlie said, putting his hands on Dee's shoulders to stop her from collapsing back down onto the hard tiles, "I'm not cleaning up any blood tonight."

Charlie led Dee by the shoulders out into her room where she fell back on her bed, pulling off her scarf and kicking her one remaining shoe off. She curled up under the sheets in seconds and Charlie smiled to himself. She looked so innocent when she was sleepy. You would never think that she was as loud or as reckless as she was. Charlie even considered her pretty when all her walls were down. He was about to turn and go set up the couch when a still very drunk Dee said his name softly.

He looked at her, as she was struggling to keep her eyes open. "Charlie, can you stay beside me? I know I'm a drunk bitch or whatever but I really don't want to sleep alone tonight." She drunkenly confessed.

The Gang would have shit on her so much for what she just said, but somehow Dee knew Charlie wouldn't. The two were on the same page more often than not, and she knew that it was just both their insecurities that held them back in the Gang.

Charlie did understand, he probably understood most out of all the Gang members. Sure he got a lot of heat for sleeping beside an old man every night, he had no idea why Frank done it, but for Charlie it was just the comfort of having another human being breathing beside him, just existing in the same space as him, that's all he wanted.

"Sure." Charlie smiled softly. He turned off the light and lifted the covers, easing his way into the bed. He wanted to make sure he didn't overstep the line, but Dee apparently didn't care for personal boundaries as she brought her head to Charlie's shoulder and fell asleep promptly. Charlie couldn't help but look down at his sleeping friend, as he did, he noticed some marks on her neck and reminded himself to take a closer look in the morning. With that, Charlie closed his eyes and drifted off into a deep warm sleep for the first time in years without the aid of cat food.


End file.
